October 13, 2012
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October Family Letter & Other Stuff
October, 2012
Dear Family,
Tick… tick… tick… is right. When I got on the computer this evening after a VERY LONG day, thinking I had one more day to get this letter to Brent, I took a second look at the calendar only to find out that Brent is right. So I lost a day… not a surprise. Sometimes I think that I am losing a lot more than that!
Summer is almost over for us up here. We have had a fantastic fall with no rain as of yet to ruin our garden. I went out today and finished getting the onions. Tomorrow I will go out and pick all of the tomatoes as the weather-guessers say that we will be getting our first rain for a long time on Friday. I have my garden mostly prepared for the winter “growing season… which consists mostly of obnoxious weeds and other unwanted growing things. Last year it was volunteer rye that took over because I had planted rye the year before trying to keep down the weeks. That worked, by the way, but then getting rid of the rye plants in my garden this summer has been a challenge. I still have three types of lettuce (5th planting) and the carrots still growing. I leave the carrots in the ground and cover them with grass and leave clippings and they pretty well last all winter. So we are still eating delicious home-grown tomatoes. After my store runs out, I go for a long time without eating any tomatoes because I have such a time transitioning to the store-bought things that look a lot like tomatoes, but don’t taste like them. Well, so much for the garden update.
We are still trying to “get out of Dodge”. I have one more tail-gate for a Seattle Seahawks game up in Seattle this weekend, and then the summer rental season will be pretty much finished. I have one rental out right now that also comes back this weekend. I have to take the Phaeton in to the fix-it shop to have a couple of things fixed that I cannot do myself. I hope to have that done on Monday and Tuesday. Then we will start packing and will leave later in the week. This trip down, since Aaron is in Boise until November sometime finishing his massage therapy schooling, so we plan to stop there for at least one day so Aaron can give his Mom a massage, and I just might get one also. I have never had a massage, so that would be a new experience for me. Then we will head for Jenn’s place in Richmond and spend a couple of weeks split between there and Bear Lake. After visiting there for however long we decide to stay, we will work our way down to Arizona to visit with Jeff and Becky. We are thinking that since it is so late, that we just might spend Thanksgiving with them down there and then work our way back home. If the weather in Utah and Idaho is good, we will come back that way, if not we will come back through California.
Thanks to all of you who remembered our Jay in your prayers this past month. Jay is doing better, is back to work doing “desk duty”. The flair-up of his Crohn’s problem was a surprise and a concern. We hope that this time it will stay under control for a lot longer. Thanks again for your thoughts and concern. Thankfully there is lots of family living here close so helping Heather with Gwen and Oscar.
We had a relaxing weekend up here and were able to listen to all the sessions of General Conference. Of special note to me was Elder Holland’s talk Sunday Morning and Elder Bednar’s talk Sunday afternoon. I usually don’t pick out particular talks of conference, but these two made an impression,especially Elder Holland. Of course, in every conference it seems that there is at least one message that was given just for me, and having two this conference was a bonus.
We are doing well up here and looking forward to visiting with many of you this coming few weeks. Until then, we send you our love.
Judy Lynn & Roger
Now for some pictures:
For many years I have been renting a storage shed at a apartment complex that is managed by a family in our ward. I finally got tired of the expense and decided to build a storage shed in my back yard, I purchased the shed in kit form and took some pictures as we put it together.
Sod removed from around old shed pad. Starting to move in the gravel for the base of the pad.
Using Todd’s JD tractor and cart to move in the gravel. Chad helping as well as Finn wanting to be in the middle of things.
Getting close to having the gravel moved. Finn taking advantage of the empty cart on the way out to get more gravel.
Pad pretty well finished
Laying out the foundation
Floor and two sides in place
Three sides in place and one of the roof ends ready to be raised
Working on roof
Roof paneled and then shingled – Door hung
Finished in one day
After our first trip Idaho/Utah, the weather was good so I was able to paint the shed. The color is the same as we painted the house last time and is not much different from the primer that was on the shed as it was built. While I had the paint sprayer, I used it to paint the addition to the awning that we completed last Fall and never got painted. The picture on the right was showing the difference the paint makes.I had a tailgate up in Seattle for the Seahawks/Green Bay football game. These folks sure do live different lives than I do.
The people come for a couple of hours and eat DRINK and visit/socialize. I guess the company that pays for this
gets there moneys worth for the good-will because they keep doing it.
They use the Phaeton MH for the dispensing of the drinks (booze)
One of the other Fall projects was painting/staining the railing I installed on my flatbed trailer.
Garden almost ready for winter – Onions pulled and laying on the ground to dry.
This is a new toy that my Homeowner’s Association purchased for me to use. It picks up the grass clippings and leaves.
It works great. I used it for the first time this past week and the park looks really nice. We have received lots of compliments.
This is the Magnivox Stereo that was the first purchase that Judy Lynn and I made after we were married. We waited for two years for it to go on sale. I have just kept it stored, hating to get rid of it for sentimental reasons. I have finally got to the point that I am ready to let it go. The radio still works and the sound is great, but the real-to-real tape player and the turntable does not work any longer. Anyone want a ice looking cabinet?
One last picture of Gwen with some strange eyes.
